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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28469070">History Museum</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisTheHuntress/pseuds/ArtemisTheHuntress'>ArtemisTheHuntress</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>15 Minute Fics [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(maybe), Capitalism, Catharsis, Gen, Museums, Near Future, Wish Fulfillment</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:55:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>452</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28469070</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisTheHuntress/pseuds/ArtemisTheHuntress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Two friends visit the Capitalism Museum in Washington, D.C.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Original Character &amp; Original Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>15 Minute Fics [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2085345</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>History Museum</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for 15minutefics, Photo Friday #78.  <a href="https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/1267549">Originally posted to Pillowfort on May 30, 2020.</a></p><p>Happy New Year.  Here's to a better future.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p>
<hr/><p>Lynna sighed theatrically.  “Why do you even <em>want</em> to go to the capitalism museum?  It sounds depressing.”</p><p>“It’s <em>interesting</em>,” Margot insisted.  “It’s <em>history.</em>”</p><p>“Lots of awful things are <em>history</em>.  I wouldn’t want to go to museums about wars or slavery or the Trump presidency either.”</p><p>“They’re important things to know!”</p><p>“Yeah, but we’re visiting DC for <em>fun,</em> Margot.  When I suggested a cross-country train trip it was supposed to be for <em>fun</em>.  Let’s go to the Natural History museum instead, if you want to do a museum.  Rocks and dinosaurs are fun.  Or the zoo!  They just added a whole new section to the prairie dogs, you can walk around this glass skywalk around their enclosure.  You don’t need—what even is that?  An ironic mock-up of an old-style gift shop?”</p><p>“Yeah, it’s clever.  See, it used to be that museums weren't valuable under capitalism, cause they didn’t <em>make money,</em> so they were considered to have a lot less value than things that contributed to society absolutely nothing at all.  So trading on stuff like Wall Street and making computer apps that sold your data to other companies were the most valuable thing you could do, cause those were easy ways to <em>make money.</em>  And then on the other hand, museums and places that teach about history were considered <em>not valuable</em> so they had to sell tchotchkes themed around their topic to make enough money to keep operating.  So when the museum’s topic was something depressing, it could get really ghoulish.  That’s how capitalism <em>worked</em>, that’s what they’re mocking here.  It’s ironic.”</p><p>“That’s kind of sick.”</p><p>“Well, yeah, everything about capitalism was backwards, but people really believed in it for <em>so long</em>, that’s why the museum is <em>interesting,</em> Lynna.”</p><p>Lynna huffed, then said, “Okay, the stuffed owl <em>is</em> cute though, I can see why people wanted to buy them.”</p><p>“Is that a yes?”</p><p>“That’s a yes if we can go to the zoo afterwards and see real, living things and hear the scientists talk about good things like their ecological restoration projects, instead of depressing old dead things that are over and don’t matter anymore.”</p><p>“We’re still dealing with the effects of capitalism on the planet, that’s <em>why</em> the zoos do ecological restoration work—come on, Lynna, it’ll be the perfect one-two punch, yeah?”</p><p>“I guess so,” Lynna said, with a dramatic sigh but a wry grin.  “You’re always so morbid, Margot, of course you like the stuff about greed and destruction and brainwashing.”</p><p>Margot poked her arm.  “It’s <em>uplifting.</em>  It’s a history of the shitty stuff humanity did, so we can say, it’s over, and then go see the animals that we’re saving and putting back, and say, it’s the future.”</p>
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